Pick Your Poison, Monday

[joan_of_bark]

Did Pam expect a lot of customers today, considering what Adrian had told her about the kids? No. But she'd left the swamp yesterday to make something of a detour to a local recycling plant - and since for the first time in months there was no time pressure riding on her shoulders, she figured she might as well stop by the store.

Most of the product had remained as-is, but there was a whole lot more children's bubble bath on the shelves than she remembered.

"I'm not going to check the ingredients," she muttered, as she walked past those shelves towards the counter. "I am not."

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[totalwildcard]

Harley probably wasn't a customer either. But Harley had been to class (zero stars, awful, cold) and that meant she now had some questions about some other people on the island.

Hence the, "Pammy?? Are ya still the correct age to appreciate a nice tiramisu??" asked loudly as soon as she was in the door.

(Why tiramisu was the most grown-up thing she could think of in the moment was anyone's guess.)

[joan_of_bark]

"I'm not a child," Pam confirmed, from the back by the counter.

Just in case Harley wanted to get a visual on that.

[totalwildcard]

Harley did in fact immediately veer past a shelf for a look-see.

"Okay good," she said, after a comically exaggerated sigh of relief she'd also been dead serious about, "'cause my swimming class got miniaturized!"

[joan_of_bark]

Pam's gaze dipped very briefly to Harley's hands, just to determine whether 'tiramisu' had been an impulse-buy or an impulse-word. "Most of the population turned into kids over the weekend," she offered. "I doubt it's going to last much longer."

[totalwildcard]

Harley's hands were empty of delicious and/or grown-up desserts, unfortunately. Or anything else.

All the better for making a big gesture with, though. "But the weekend's over," she pointed out. "Shouldn't this be done?"

[joan_of_bark]

"It's funny that you think this stuff is beholden to any kind of rules," Pam said dryly. "It doesn't make much sense to begin with."

[totalwildcard]

"But there's patterns," Harley insisted, because sometimes she both observed and remembered these things (and other times, not so much).

Still, she let it go, as she seemed to suddenly remember where she was. And who with. "Anyway, what's up? You good? No more asshats breakin' out outta your ribs?"

[joan_of_bark]

"Not as far as I can tell," Pam said, letting the patterns slide, too. (She didn't believe in anything being either fully predictable or unpredictable - nature moved in seasons, yes, but the details always changed.) "I've spent the past week fixing the last of the damage we did to the swamp."

[totalwildcard]

"And that's lookin' good, now?" Harley checked, only to have to amend it with, "I mean, for a swamp."

Harleys remained iffy about swamps.

[joan_of_bark]

"Getting better," Pam said. "Though it looks like our fight did manage to surface a whole drowned town out of nowhere."

You know, as you do.

[totalwildcard]

"A town?" Harley replied, her eyebrows climbing, then dipping way down into a furrow. "What kinda dope'd put a town in a soggy swamp?"

[joan_of_bark]

"That's what I'm going to try and find out," Pam said, with a little shrug. "It is weird, even for our standards."

[totalwildcard]

"Is Harley helpin'?"

It seemed like a thing to ask.

[joan_of_bark]

Pam shot her a dry look. "She's not really a swamp person."

[totalwildcard]

Harley instantly held up her hands. "Hey, it coulda been different! Yanno, power of love or something! I dunno!"

[joan_of_bark]

"I don't think the power of love works that way," Pam said, but she sounded amused. "Not for us, at least."

[totalwildcard]

Harley gave one of her particularly big shrugs. "I wouldn't know, I dunno how swamps factor into it," she said. "Coulda been the right kind of magic, I guess. But also I get it, it ain't the best environment for a Harley."

[joan_of_bark]

"She has an apartment in Gotham," Pam offered, leaning back against the counter. "I sleep over there any chance I get."

[totalwildcard]

Harley had known getting on this conversational path might be a bad idea, and would you look at that, it was!

"Well," she said, lamely, "good." She meant it, despite the brief awkward uncertainty on her face. "That's nice."

And then she took a breath, and glanced around for a quick change of subject, and immediately caught one. "Anyhoo -- did your stock get kiddified?" she asked, with a quizzical look at the children's bubble baths. All awkwardness brushed aside.

[joan_of_bark]

Sorry, Harls.

Pam followed her line of sight, letting it go without a word. "I think some of it did," she said. "I'm a little scared to see what the island put there, honestly."

[totalwildcard]

Well, Harley had already grabbed a container for closer inspection.

"Aww, it says it don't sting your eyes!"

[joan_of_bark]

"That either means fewer chemicals or more chemicals," Pam sighed. Since Harley had forced her hand, she pushed away from the counter and walked over to join her by the shelf.

[totalwildcard]

"It's for kids!" Harley argued brightly. "Why would they put chemicals on kids?"

She knew nothing of any of this stuff.

[joan_of_bark]

"Technically there are chemicals in anything," Pam allowed, as she sank into a more educational stance. She eyed the container in Harley's hands. "But when we're talking about artificial chemicals made in a lab, those also often wind up in children's products. To make them last longer, to stabilize the mixture, or look pretty."

[totalwildcard]

Harley looked a little more uncertain, now.

"There's a little bunny rabbit on this bottle?" she offered, holding it up.